Vietnam’s Human Capital: Public Disclosure Authorized Education Success & Future Challenges Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Human Capital: Sachiko Kataoka (Sr. Economist, World Bank) Le Anh Vinh (Deputy Director General, Vietnam National Institute of Educational Sciences/VNIES) EducationSandhya Kitchlu Success (Consultant, World Bank) uture Challenges Keiko Inoue (Human Development Program Leader, World Bank) Public Disclosure Authorized Sachiko ataokaKeywords: Sr Economist World ank e Anh Vinh eputyVietnam; irector Education eneral Policy; Education Vietnam and ational Economic Institute Development; Economics of Education; PISA of Educational SciencesVIES Sandhya itchlu Consultant orld ank eiko Inoue uman evelopment Program eader World ank Abstract Education policy makers around the world marvel at Vietnam’s success in access to general education and learning outcomes. Despite the country’s relatively low level of economic development, Vietnamese students outperform students in OECD countries on average in the Programme for International Student Assessment. What are the factors that have allowed Vietnam to achieve such success? This note shows that Vietnam’s education system shares common characteristics with other successful education systems in East Asia. While some of these factors are sociocultural—which may not be easily replicable in other countries—others are policy decisions from which leaders of other countries may learn. Following the evolution of education in postwar Vietnam, from 1975 to the present, this note highlights the key reforms pursued by the government and the resulting achievements, as well as the obstacles encountered along the way. The note also discusses challenges that Vietnam’s education system faces today in reaching its full potential as a knowledge-based economy. 2 Vietnam’s Human Capital: Education Success and Future Challenges Acknowledgments This note was prepared under the guidance of Tobias Linden and Harry Patrinos, Practice Managers of the World Bank East Asia and the Pacific Education Global Practice. The authors are grateful to colleagues from the Vietnam National Institute of Educational Sciences (VNIES) who provided inputs to the note: Associate Professor Tran Kieu, Dr. Le Dong Phuong, Dr. Nguyen Minh Tuan, Dr. Nguyen Thi Kim Hoa, Dr. Ha Duc Da, and Ms. Hoang Phuong Hanh. The team is appreciative of inputs from the following colleagues from the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET): Professor Nguyen Ba Minh and Dr. Ta Ngoc Tri. The team also benefited from contributions from World Bank colleagues, including Miguel Ruiz (Consultant), Dilip Parajuli (Sr. Economist), Dung Vo (Sr. Education Specialist), An Thi My Tran (Sr. Education Specialist), and Amer Hasan (Sr. Economist). The team is thankful for the leadership and support of Ousmane Dione, Country Director for Vietnam. Vietnam’s Human Capital: Education Success and Future Challenges 3 4 Vietnam’s Human Capital: Education Success and Future Challenges Vietnam’s Human Capital: Remarkable Education Success and Future Challenges Executive Summary Education policy makers around the world marvel at Vietnam’s success in providing access to general education1 and in boosting learning outcomes. Despite its relatively low level of economic development, Vietnamese students outperform students in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries on average in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). What are the secrets to this success? Following decades of colonization and conflict, Vietnam has transformed into an “emerging dragon” across multiple social and economic sectors, including education. This note follows the evolution of postwar Vietnam’s education system and highlights some of the key reforms implemented from 1975 to the present. It provides the Vietnamese government’s rationale for the reforms it pursued, the primary reasons for their success, and the challenges encountered along the way. This note illustrates that Vietnam’s education system shares common characteristics with other successful education systems in East Asia, including the government’s strong commitment to educational development, supported by high accountability mechanisms; relatively high public spending with a focus on investing in general education, basic inputs, and equity, together with high household investment in education; attracting and supporting qualified teachers; strong investment in preschool education; and strategic use of assessments. The Vietnamese government’s unshakable commitment to improving people’s learning, together with high accountability and autonomy for schools, supported by a strong internal and external monitoring and reporting mechanism, have driven the continuous expansion and improvement of the education system. 1. General education in Vietnam consists of primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary school. Vietnam’s Human Capital: Education Success and Future Challenges 5 ● Vietnam has always prioritized investment in primary and basic literacy education. Spending is also directed toward equity, which is an important factor contributing to Vietnam’s high and relatively equitable learning outcomes. High household spending contributes to further investment in education. ● The government has implemented policies to attract and support qualified teachers through incentives and continuous professional development. ● Targeted public spending on preschool enabled the government to achieve universal preschool education for five-year-old children.To increase access, the government has also mobilized communities and the private sector in the provision of preschool education. ● Vietnam has effectively benchmarked its student assessment system against international good practices and used assessment results to improve the system. For instance, in response to PISA 2012 results, Vietnam changed the legal framework for large-scale exams to diversify testing methods, improve item quality, and pave the way for competency-based assessment. The country also benefits from cultural aspects such as placing a high value on education, high parental expectations, and highly disciplined environments for teachers and students. Although some of these factors are sociocultural—which may not be easily replicable in other countries—others are policy decisions from which leaders of other countries may learn. Despite its impressive success in achieving strong performance to date, Vietnam’s education system faces critical challenges as the country strives to move toward a knowledge-based economy. First, access to secondary education is low and inequitable. Second, although the government is committed to improving education quality by enhancing competency-based teaching practices and reforming school curriculum and textbooks, clear guidance on and facilitation of enabling conditions for competency-based teaching are still needed. Third, as Vietnam’s economy grows, it needs to invest more in higher levels of education and lifelong learning to ensure students exit the system with the knowledge and skills relevant to labor market needs. The tertiary system suffers from structural deficiencies, including lack of funding and a weak sector strategy. The government is aware of these weaknesses and is committed to overcoming them so that the country can continue strengthening its human capital as a way to further spur economic growth. 6 Vietnam’s Human Capital: Education Success and Future Challenges Vietnam’s Human Capital: Education Success and Future Challenges 7 Introduction The World Bank’s Human Capital Project recognizes that investing in the health and skills of human beings is central to development and delivers substantial economic benefits. The Bank’s Changing Wealth of Nations report also sheds light on human capital as the most important component of a country’s wealth globally (Lange, Wodon, and Carey 2018). Vietnam’s impressive success story in access to general education2 and learning outcomes is a case in point, offering economic security and the opportunity to join the rapidly growing middle class (World Bank 2018a). Education policy makers around the world marvel at Vietnam’s education success. Indeed, its progress in education has been a major contributor to Vietnam’s impressive ranking on the Human Capital Index (HCI), 48 out of 157 countries. One of the three components of HCI, Learning- Adjusted Years of School, refers to the quantity of education a child can expect to obtain by age 18, combined with a measure of quality—how much children learn in school based on countries’ relative performance on international student achievement tests. Vietnam’s striking results, compared with other countries with a similar level of national average income (table 1), can be attributed to the government’s consistent efforts to improve the education system to increase educational access, inclusion, and attainment by implementing reforms based on evidence-based decision-making. Table 1 Human Capital Index and Components: Income Group Benchmarks, Male and Female Combined, 2018 Indicator Vietnam Low Lower Upper High income middle middle income income income HCI Component 1: Survival Probability of Survival to Age 5 0.979 0.929 0.961 0.983 0.995 HCI Component 2: School Expected Years of School 12.3 7.8 10.4 11.7 13.3 Learning-Adjusted Years of School 10.2 4.5 6.6 8.1 10.8 Harmonized Test Scores 519 363 391 428 506 HCI Component 3: Health Survival Rate from Age 15 to Age 60 0.878 0.745 0.807